Wikipedia, the largest online information portal has declared a full day blackout. ?Imagine a World without Free Knowledge?, reads the message, instead of Wikipedia?s homepage. The move comes in protest of the anti-piracy bills ? Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA). The two regulations have not yet been floored in the US senate, but have already spurred debate in the internet industry. Industry heavyweights like Google, Twitter, Yahoo, eBay, Facebook and AOL have shown strong opposition to the passing of these acts.
The two contentious laws, which are currently being discussed in the House of Representatives, are meant to curb unauthorised sharing and streaming of copyrighted content. However, the industry is of view that the passing of these bills would restrain and cripple the web world and may lead to the death of all the websites allowing for or using, user uploaded content and severely effect freedom of speech. The current US laws demand that content should be take off the site if a copyright holder lodges a complaint. However, in case the content is from a website hosted out of US, then the law is not applicable. SOFA, if passed, would allow content copyright holders to complain about a US website even if it carries links to pirated material being showcased abroad.
SOPA would also require internet service providers to block or divert traffic to offending foreign sites. Such level of monitoring would be quite a burden for websites which will have to put in additional resources to hunt for infringes of copyright laws. Companies that fail to comply face fines, or even a spell in prison for their executives.
While Wikipedia, Reddit, TwitPic, Mozilla and WordPress have taken the drastic step of blacking out for 24 hours in protest, Google plans to highlight information about the bills, although users will still be able to conduct Google searches. Twitter has opposed the blackout campaign, but maintains its strong opposition to the act.
The fate of the acts remains to be seen, as the criticism faced from the public and businesses has already led to some amendments in the bill. A new bill called the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act (OPEN) ids being considered. The latter focuses more explicitly on non-American websites and includes clauses to allow for freedom of speech.
